The statement you quoted from the article (which is basically Taleb's criticism of Nate Silver) is not correct, the FiveThirtyEight prediction models are explicitly not answering the question "if the election was held today, what would happen". There are models like that on FiveThirtyEight, but the main question being answered is who is likely to win the actual election on the day it is held.
> There were models like that, they didn’t bring them back this year.
They weren't the headline forecast, but, yes, the NowCast existed (and still does, in fact, though it's not visible, just like the polls-only forecast model isn't visible any more; Silver references them periodically.)
But it's inaccurate to criticize the headline forecast based on the idea that it is trying to do what the NowCast does, and it is dishonest to criticize something other than the main forecast and say it is a criticism of the forecast, but not specify the alternative forecast you are actually criticizing.
